Before the Stars

Early Major League Hockey and the St. Paul Athletic Club Team

Author Roger A. Godin

Minnesota Historical Society Press (October 4, 2004)

A history of hockey’s early roots in Minnesota and of the state’s greatest team in the first half of the twentieth century—the St. Paul Athletic Club hockey team.

Description

$19.95 paperback available September 2017

In the early twentieth century, before the National Hockey League had established a presence in the United States, a team from St. Paul played at the highest levels of hockey in the country. Sports historian Roger A. Godin resurrects the story of the St. Paul Athletic Club team—the AC’s—and argues they were instrumental in turning Minnesota into one of the nation’s first hockey hotbeds and gave birth to what is now known as the “State of Hockey.” Godin also paints a fascinating history of the evolution of the sport from its amateur days to the arrival of the professional version we see today.

In Before the Stars Godin traces the development of the AC’s from their origins to their capture of the MacNaughton Cup in 1916 as winners of the American Amateur Hockey Association title and to their later battles in 1922 and 1923 at the national finals of the U.S. Amateur Hockey Association. Godin profiles players such as Tony Conroy, Ed Fitzgerald, Cy Weidenborner, Emmy Garrett, and Frank “Moose” Goheen, who led the AC’s to national prominence and was the second American player elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto after the legendary Hobey Baker. Godin argues that Goheen was the greatest player that Minnesota ever produced and one of the best players of his era.

Readers are taken back to a time when players fielded seven-man teams using rovers, angry skaters swung at opposing coaches and referees, goal umpires raised white flags to signal goals, and fans watched games in massive hippodromes and celebrated their teams in torchlight parades. Before the Stars is a captivating history of the sport’s early years and a must read for any hockey fan.

Author information

Roger A. Godin is the official team curator for the Minnesota Wild (the only curator employed by a professional sports team in North America) and was the first director of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in Eveleth, Minnesota. He is author of two other sports histories, The 1922 St. Louis Browns and The Brooklyn Football Dodgers: The Other Bums, and has been awarded the Brian McFarlane Award for Outstanding Research and Writing by the Society for International Hockey Research (SIHR).

Reviews and news

Vintage Minnesota Hockey Interview

[Godin] "has written a book titled Before the Stars: Early Major League Hockey and the St. Paul Athletic Club Team to inform latecomers and the historically challenged that hockey from another era warrants a gigantic stick salute."
Pioneer Press

"Before the Stars paints a fascinating history of the evolution of the sport from its amateur days to the arrival of the professional version we know today. . . . It takes readers back to a time when players iced seven-man teams using rovers, angry skaters swung at opposing coaches and referees, goal umpires raise white flags to signal goals, and fans watched games in massive hippodromes and celebrated their teams in torchlight parades. This captivating history of the sport's early years is a must read for any hockey fan." Let's Play Hockey

Advance Praise:

“Roger Godin’s tireless research unveils a hidden chapter in the State of Hockey’s history through the story of an early powerhouse. This book offers a time travel ticket that hockey fans will find hard to refuse.”
John Rosengren, author of Blades of Glory: The True Story of a Young Team Bred to Win

“Godin’s insight into Minnesota’s hockey heritage and the team that paved the way for hockey prominence in the state is a must read for all who value the historical traditions of hockey in the United States.”
Tom Sersha, Executive Director, U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame

“A very engaging history of hockey. Roger Godin puts the reader on the ice, in the lives, and in the arenas with the players of the times.”
Jeff Sauer, former longtime men’s hockey coach at the University of Wisconsin and the all-time leader in WCHA victories

• 352 pages
• 7.25 x 10.25 inches
• ISBN: 9780873514767